Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

3 reviews

summerb's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Classism, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, War, Kidnapping, and Medical content

purplehulk713's review against another edition

I got bored. The musical is just better—much more entertaining and engaging, and not nearly as dense. There are just so many details that seem unnecessary like everyone’s perspectives that make the book feel eternal (why do we need know Boq’s perspective?). Maybe if Maguire had chosen to tell it from one perspective like the musical does, it would have just been easier to understand and enjoyable to read. I felt like it’s something I needed to read because I like the musical and thought I should read the source material. I just thought it would be interesting to see how they differed, but then I realized I can look that up and spend much less time on Maguire’s dense prose.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Hate crime, Violence, Racism, and Racial slurs

Minor: Rape

gayghostprince's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, War, Xenophobia, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Colonisation, Dementia, Drug use, Alcohol, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

I never finished this book when I was younger but I was immediately struck by how vile all the adults in this book are upon rereading it. there are no assault scenes, but people do mention r*pe. the descriptions and implications about specific groups in this people are racist and stereotypical, but not often aggressively malicious. a LOT of the treatment of children in this book is upsetting. content warning for family baggage and child neglect. in addition, late in the book a child is pretty relentlessly bullied by his peers. I added a minor homophobia warning because the way people describe the two obviously gay characters is often homophobic. just coincidentally describing them as simpering or whatever. the equivalent of calling a gay man a fairy, you know? the sex scenes in this book are not detailed or graphic but they are also not well written. take that as you will.